More wrestling/MMA discussions

"plus from what i understand being NCAA champ means you're good, but olympic gold medalist is worlds away from NCAA level in wrestling, so Rulon should be able to handle brock. not to mention rulon can now completely escape toe holds 10% of the time, so he's got that advantage"

The important thing to remember is that the NCAA and the Olympics are different. Yes it is harder to win an Olympic (Greco-Roman or Freestyle) gold obviously, but it's also not the same kind of wrestling (folkstyle or collegiate) done in the NCAA. For years and years people have argued about why the United States hamstrings our olympic hopefuls in international competition by making them wrestle a style in high school and college that isn't recognized internationally. Typically the collegiate wrestlers who are good try to transition to Freestyle wrestling and that takes a year at least to make the adjustment. Recently a couple of wrestlers have opted to skip wrestling in college and go straight to training for international competition most notably Henry Cejudo who is on the current U.S. olympic team.

Greco-Roman style is mostly upper body on the feet and mat. It is illegal to hold the opponent below the belt, to make trips, and to attack the legs while standing. You see more throws in Greco-Roman because the traditional defenses to most throws are out of play (hooking the legs or grabbing legs etc.) On the mat the man on top still can't attack legs and the man on bottom usually never fights to improve position because doing so may open them up to a potentially match ending throw. The U.S. usually struggles with Greco-Roman and has only won 3 gold medals in the sport (I would say two since Rulon Gardner won his medal on some bullshit ass new rule but in the books it goes down on as a gold despite the fact that one of the greatest upsets in U.S. olympic history happened because of a minor technicality which had not existed in international competition prior to those Olympics. If that rule wasn't in place Rulon would have lost the match two seconds after that call would have happened.).

Freestyle allows the attacks on the legs in all positions. But some of the slick ass shit that U.S. wrestlers pull in folkstyle would result in instant back points in freestyle. You can also lock your hands together from the top position whereas you cannot in folkstyle, please don't ask me to explain this further. Defense from the bottom position consists of laying there and trying to make sure your opponent doesn't flip you over. In international competition the U.S. has much more success in the Olympics (John Smith, Dan Gable, Cael Sanderson, Kurt Angle, etc.)

Collegiate (folkstyle) wrestling emphasizes all different positions and it is typically more wide open in terms of moves than Greco-Roman or Freestyle. There is almost equal emphasis on standing positions as well as mat wrestling, and the huge difference from Freestyle and Greco-Roman really comes in when people are in the bottom position. In collegiate wrestling the man on bottom is encouraged (required) to try and improve his position either by standing and facing his opponent or reversing him. Also the top position is different from freestyle in that you are slightly restricted from doing certain things. On the feet everything is in play, takedowns, sweeps, throws etc.

From a wrestling standpoint collegiate is a more "complete" wrestling style, meaning that there is a wider library of moves available, largely stemming from the bottom position's requirement to try and score rather then sit there and try to not be turned. There are also several moves in collegiate wrestling that are doable because of differences in scoring. Freestyle and Greco-Roman have several throws that not legal in collegiate (full on suplex for one) and a series of moves from the top that are available due to the ability to lock hands. From a MMA point of view the broad generalizations would be that greco guys would be good in the clinch (Randy Couture) freestyle guys would be good at take downs (GSP trains with the Canadian freestyle team), and collegiate guys would be like every wrestler you see that wasn't part of the Olympic team (huge list).

All things being equal (conditioning etc) Rulon might actually lose to Brock depending on what kind of wrestling match it was. Rulon hasn't had to defend his legs from a takedown in years. Throwing Brock wouldn't be as easy as it seems. I think Rulon would win but I'm just saying that he might lose to Brock.